Oracle

The Tools Team can lead to interesting work sometimes. Good people. A good stepping stone job.

Hired at market value, but then you fall behind, and there is no reasonable path to catch up. Management (all the way up to my VP) were powerless and could do nothing to help, even if they wanted to. I calculated my pay deficit over 21 years, assuming I was hired at market value, and compared what I could have made if I stayed at market value (for example, by jumping companies as soon as I fell behind) versus what I actually made at Oracle. 21 years of starting at market that diminished to 38% of market value resulted in a heart-breaking $1.8 million loss in pay. A hard lesson to learn.

Long periods of stagnation in title or role, even when you perform at a higher level for years. I've been a PMTS for 14 years, even though I've been performing at the next level for the last 5-6 years.

I averaged 12-16 hour days over 21 years.

Value employees over profit. In this culture, employee loyalty is worthless. When an employee is making 38% of what you hire new people doing the same work to do, and you tell the person that the only (mildly possible) way to get up to market pay is to show a competing offer from a different company, there is something very wrong with your system. I don't know any employee at Oracle that would stay after getting a competing offer at market value (just to fall behind again as soon as market value exceeds your current pay).